Abstract
As the significance of academic language in fostering success across content areas garners growing attention, the incorporation of literacy instruction within content area teaching has shown promise in bolstering the academic achievements of English learners. Nevertheless, a comprehensive assessment of empirical studies exploring the impact of literacy-integrated content area instruction on English learners’ literacy skills and content knowledge remains absent in the literature. The goal of the current meta-analysis is to quantitatively synthesize the studies that investigated the effects of literacy-integrated content area instruction on kindergarten to 12th grade English learners’ literacy skills (e.g., reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing) and content knowledge development. Across various academic subjects, 26 studies were identified, yielding 99 effect sizes. Random-effects models revealed that the magnitude of overall effects of literacy instruction in content learning was medium in writing but large in reading, vocabulary, and content knowledge, based on the benchmark of Kraft. No publication bias was found in any of the analyses. Moderator analyses indicated that longer instructional durations (e.g., one year or longer) and small group configurations prove more effective for English learners in reading and writing, but additional research is warranted to explore the effect of literacy-integrated content instruction on English learners’ writing. This study offers both theoretical and pedagogical implications.
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